Recently in VoIP in Canada Category

Ok, I have been seriously lacking in posting to this blog but I have excuses! Shift happens, as in shiftnetworks.com. The new website just launched and it looks great. We are putting the finishing touches on our latest and greatest network achievements at Shift and I can tell you all honestly, this new offering is going to kick some major ass! It's been a long time since I have been this excited about anything in the VoIP space.

Having lived in Canada since birth it’s seems a bit weird that I have not worked more closely with some of the telcos and larger telecom vendors here. Although if you take a look at the market and how Canada usually trails behind the US and Europe in the implementation of new telecommunication technology it may not seem weird at all. Most of my business in previous projects came from the US and Europe, they are the first to jump on new technology. Strangely this country builds some of the best technology in SIP today. It’s true, Canada is slow to deploy but we can build it like there is no tomorrow. Well, I have found one company that is going to change all of that. Shift Networks is a company that is delivering on-demand IP communication services for business leading in Canada.

Now, as the CTO for Shift my job is to deliver SMB 2.0 (tongue now planted firmly in side of cheek) , which can be summed up as Simple, Powerful, Affordable and Reliable on-demand business communications services. Basically, I get to build the best on-demand SMB communications infrastructure in Canada. It’s a dream really! I get to surround myself with really smart people whose new mission in life is to build a network using SIP and deploy those cool features I spent so many years designing. Now we’re talking!

So what if anything stands in my way? Hmm, not much it would seem. Even this recent CRTC burp will not hold us up. By now most of you have heard that the CRTC has been told, by our new government no less, that they need to review the recent VoIP ruling, this is the first time this has happened in over 10 years. Fellow blogger, Jon Arnold made some great points and references a submission made by Jeff Pulver. I for one believe that the telcos who own nearly 95% of the market share will certainly try to crush innovation if they are allowed to compete on a level playing field. If we are going to review the ruling that allowed non-regulated VoIP operators to compete directly with the incumbents then let’s make sure we protect the innovators so they are not gobbled up in price wars with the incumbents who are hell bent on owning the entire market. Monopolies suck, the consumer gets the shaft and innovation takes a back seat. Let’s hope the CRTC doesn’t ignore this in their review. Something similar is happening the US, Alec Saunders has more on that.

On a sidebar, some of you misht be asking yoiurselves why I have not been as active as I once was on this blog and the simple answer is, I am super busy with my new job. In addition, my analyst podcast has been shelved due in part to Angelo Liberatore moving into a new department at Credit Suisse, congrats on the new gig Angelo!